Trump offers warm welcome as China’s Xi arrives for US visit

In a written statement published by China’s state news agency Xinhua, Xi said both China and the US are “great nations, and their people are great people”.

“The two countries should be partners rather than rivals,” he said.

Melania Trump has said she has been involved intimately with the planning of the itinerary. She told Fox News that Trump made the decision to personally greet Xi himself at the airport “because they have a great relationship”.

Xi is accompanied on the visit by Cai Qi, a member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee who’s widely seen as his right-hand man, vice premier He Lifeng, foreign minister Wang Yi, as well as other delegates and ambassadors from Beijing.

“Realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can fully coexist, reinforce each other and benefit the world,” Xi said in the statement carried by Xinhua, where he also expressed confident that the visit would “yield fruitful results”.

It is unclear if Xi has brought any business executives with him. Bringing Chinese firms to the US may also raise questions about Chinese business practices, subsidies and overcapacity, all of which may draw more fire and questions than Xi or his party would like.

During Trump’s visit to Beijing in May, he was accompanied by a group of tech executives from some of the largest US firms, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

Leaders of US AI companies are slated to attend the lavish state dinner set for Thursday. Xi’s visit will end on Friday.

Trump has dismissed recent warnings about the potential dangers of AI from within the industry as a “hoax” and both countries are racing to try to achieve dominance in the sector.